Barbie Dolls in Oman

Honestly. I don't like how white skin is marketed as more beautiful than natural skin tones to the Omani population which is rarely (can be but not often) as white as a "Barbie" Barbie doll or even a Muslim Syrian-made "Fulla" doll. Nor does Barbie and Bratz dolls always embody Omani values. We can blame Barbie I suppose for many unreal standards of beauty but I played with barbies when I was a kid and had no problems with my body image. I never went annorexic or wanted boob impants or a nose job or anything. Maybe cuz I found a doll that had the same hair colour and eye colour as me and dressed to suit my Western culture and values? And the fact that my mother sewed outfits for my dolls that I could find relateable to my life. I knew they were more perfect versions than life cuz they were pretend, and I would never stop little girls from playing with dolls or blame Vogue magazine for anyone's mental disorders ect. That's not exactly what this semi-rant post is about.This post is about how I went to all the toy stores in Oman and tried to find a darker skinned (even olive toned) doll and couldn't find a single one except for the bathing suit surfer cali girl one pictured above this sentance. I want the girls in my Omani family to be proud of their Islamic principles and think them as trendy as I used to think lipstick was, and to embrace their rich Omani heritage. I also don't want them to grow up thinking white skin is the only standard for beauty and the only bottle of foundation. And I was bored so I decided to sew traditional Omani dresses for a bunch of dolls and give them abayas ect. You know what? My thinking totally worked because "Sheikha" in her suri and henna totally beat out Blonde barbie in her pink ballgown in my neices' favour.
Above, one of my dolls.